Cab aggregator Ola said on Wednesday that it will lay off 1,400 of its staff due to uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic has hit Ola’s revenues, co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said in a communication sent to the company’s employees. The layoffs at Bengaluru-based Ola Cabs come as the country remains in the fourth phase of a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, which has pushed the economy into a standstill and forced many businesses to trim operations.
“Unfortunately, the COVID crisis continues to unfold all around us causing unprecedented economic and social destruction… The world is not going to revert to the pre-COVID era anytime soon,” Mr Aggarwal wrote in the note.Ola’s revenue has declined 95 per cent over the past two months, he said.
The nationwide lockdown that began on March 25 has hurt businesses of taxi services such as Ola Cabs.
On Tuesday, Ola resumed services in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi-Dharwad in Karnataka, after the state government issued guidelines to allow driver partners to operate three and four-wheelers on the Ola platforms with precautions.
According to the guidelines, only two passengers are allowed in the cab for social distancing who will sit by the windows on the rear of the car. Not many users turned up on Day 1 of the operation minimal demand.
